For those that use it cool, but for me, no thanks. Hopefully it can be disabled. I prefer to not have any "always on" devices listening to me. I do like the idea of having the mics for speech to text though.
Lots of devices are always on listening whether you realize it or not. Chances are your phone is, for instance, and pc's have that occur both intentionally and unintentionally routinely. Adding Alexa or Cortana in no way increases your risk profile.
I'm not sure how you can make the claim that "Adding Alexa or Cortana in no way increases your risk profile."
Police have requested Alexa audio files stored on Amazon servers to be used as evidence in criminal trials. Since there's no way to audit what audio has been collected and sent to Amazon, or Microsoft, or whomever, then it absolutely does increase your risk.
What confidential company secrets were discussed near a machine running Alexa or Cortana compatible software? Where is it now stored? How is it protected? Who has access to it?
All of those questions represent an increase in risk.
Even if you have a device that is already recording you, adding another device doubles the places from which your voice recordings could be stolen or subpoenaed.
1) Actually its really easy to determine what a personal assistant is recording. Load up Wireshark and check the traffic. If you knew how they worked you'd know they only listen for the wake word and don't start recording until they hear it.
2) This is not adding another device, its adding an app on an existing device. That device already could be listening in due to a variety of reasons, such as other apps or malware. Adding a personal assistant that is well understood and generally secure from a trusted vendor does not inherently increase your risk profile.
Of course it does. It may be a trusted vendor bc you choose to trust them but that doesn't make them or the people running the system trustworthy. Trust is merely acceptance of said risk. All one has to do is look thru past news to see all the breaches. As far as Alexa goes, you don't need a wake word. You simply need to overwhelm it. For example, scream batman repeatedly and you'll end up with a statue or an action figure. LOL
Like most other low powered devices, the echo does not have enough compute power to process voice recognition. Even if they are only listening for the wake word, the audio still gets sent to the servers for processing. If it detects the wake word, then the servers will store the audio stream starting just before the wake word was detected and ending at the end of the command. It is up to you to decide whether or not you trust the servers not to record any of the rest of the stream, but it is certainly available.
I suggest you recheck your wireshark traffic if you didn't see this, or more simply, play something in the background while giving Alexa a command. You can later listen to the stored recording and you'll see that it starts just prior to the wake word. Even if this is a very short snippet, it is enough to shows that data capture doesn't start after the wake word is detected, but rather the decision to store it it happens after the wake word is detected.
As to whether this behavior carries over to the PC app, I don't have experience there. Computers have significantly more compute resources that the echo and may be considered good enough to for voice recognition of a few words. However, it seems unlikely that they'd alter the functioning relative to their other Alexa enabled devices.
Have any of you actually captured data from an Echo using Wireshark? I would be surprised if any of you could see the data since I'm sure it's sent over an encrypted channel to the Alexa service in AWS. You might be able to capture the encrypted data, but how would you decrypt it to examine the contents? Would you break the encryption?
Even using a proxy would be problematic unless you could get your hands on a certificate signed by a CA that the Echo trusts.
At any rate, by design, the Echo has to be always listening and evaluating all spoken words so that it can detect the wake word. The risk is that you're trusting that by design the vendor isn't recording more than just that wake word, say, an extra 10 seconds of data at the beginning and end for diagnostic use as well as additional data for their analytics and machine learning algorithms to train themselves.
Without proper tools to audit this, it's all added risk that you accept by trusting the vendor. Sure, many of us have accepted this risk, but it's risk all the same.
I get that. None of my devices are actively listening though. Not even my phone. If its always on, then yes, it's a risk. If it's not properly configured, then it's a risk. As I said, "I prefer to not have any".
True. Many people have a lot of devices tuned in and don't realize it. If they find Alexa, Cortana, Et al. offensive, then they need to take a closer look at other devices they are using (I.E. Smart Phones, Smart TVs, IOT devices, Tablets, Computers). It is a task many have not undertaken, but it is by no means insurmountable. Start at your internet connections (Cable Modem, DSL, mobile carrier signals, etc.). Find all devices connected to these (Wired, WiFi, Mobile Antenna, etc.). Make note of any of these devices that have microphones (or camera's if that is your concern). Then you'll want to mute the mic, disconnect the device from the internet, or shut down the device entirely when not in use to remove any chance of being recorded without permission. If this is too much work, then you'll need to reconsider what level of risk you are willing to accept and either get rid of the offending devices or live with the knowledge that you may be recorded.
It was Apple that really dropped the ball given they were first with Siri, but then they did the same with music streaming given their iTunes position and video given their Apple TV position.
No kidding. They have PCs in almost every home. They have a very popular gaming device that's also used as an entertainment hub. They had the music streaming service.
Wow! Amazing gift for the Acer users! It is very interesting to know about this news and hope it will take more benefits to the users as well as Acer company. I am very curious to use this features on Acer laptops! http://alexa-echo-help.com/
Oh that's really amazing news for the Acer users. users can now enjoy the excellent features of Alexa on PC. For any issue using the Alexa device users can avail complete support at https://echodevicesupport.com/echo-alexa-service/
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Manch - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
For those that use it cool, but for me, no thanks. Hopefully it can be disabled. I prefer to not have any "always on" devices listening to me. I do like the idea of having the mics for speech to text though.Reflex - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Lots of devices are always on listening whether you realize it or not. Chances are your phone is, for instance, and pc's have that occur both intentionally and unintentionally routinely. Adding Alexa or Cortana in no way increases your risk profile.Ancillas - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
I'm not sure how you can make the claim that "Adding Alexa or Cortana in no way increases your risk profile."Police have requested Alexa audio files stored on Amazon servers to be used as evidence in criminal trials. Since there's no way to audit what audio has been collected and sent to Amazon, or Microsoft, or whomever, then it absolutely does increase your risk.
What confidential company secrets were discussed near a machine running Alexa or Cortana compatible software? Where is it now stored? How is it protected? Who has access to it?
All of those questions represent an increase in risk.
Ancillas - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Even if you have a device that is already recording you, adding another device doubles the places from which your voice recordings could be stolen or subpoenaed.Reflex - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
1) Actually its really easy to determine what a personal assistant is recording. Load up Wireshark and check the traffic. If you knew how they worked you'd know they only listen for the wake word and don't start recording until they hear it.2) This is not adding another device, its adding an app on an existing device. That device already could be listening in due to a variety of reasons, such as other apps or malware. Adding a personal assistant that is well understood and generally secure from a trusted vendor does not inherently increase your risk profile.
Manch - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
Of course it does. It may be a trusted vendor bc you choose to trust them but that doesn't make them or the people running the system trustworthy. Trust is merely acceptance of said risk. All one has to do is look thru past news to see all the breaches. As far as Alexa goes, you don't need a wake word. You simply need to overwhelm it. For example, scream batman repeatedly and you'll end up with a statue or an action figure. LOLBurntMyBacon - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
Like most other low powered devices, the echo does not have enough compute power to process voice recognition. Even if they are only listening for the wake word, the audio still gets sent to the servers for processing. If it detects the wake word, then the servers will store the audio stream starting just before the wake word was detected and ending at the end of the command. It is up to you to decide whether or not you trust the servers not to record any of the rest of the stream, but it is certainly available.I suggest you recheck your wireshark traffic if you didn't see this, or more simply, play something in the background while giving Alexa a command. You can later listen to the stored recording and you'll see that it starts just prior to the wake word. Even if this is a very short snippet, it is enough to shows that data capture doesn't start after the wake word is detected, but rather the decision to store it it happens after the wake word is detected.
As to whether this behavior carries over to the PC app, I don't have experience there. Computers have significantly more compute resources that the echo and may be considered good enough to for voice recognition of a few words. However, it seems unlikely that they'd alter the functioning relative to their other Alexa enabled devices.
Ancillas - Wednesday, May 23, 2018 - link
Have any of you actually captured data from an Echo using Wireshark? I would be surprised if any of you could see the data since I'm sure it's sent over an encrypted channel to the Alexa service in AWS. You might be able to capture the encrypted data, but how would you decrypt it to examine the contents? Would you break the encryption?Even using a proxy would be problematic unless you could get your hands on a certificate signed by a CA that the Echo trusts.
At any rate, by design, the Echo has to be always listening and evaluating all spoken words so that it can detect the wake word. The risk is that you're trusting that by design the vendor isn't recording more than just that wake word, say, an extra 10 seconds of data at the beginning and end for diagnostic use as well as additional data for their analytics and machine learning algorithms to train themselves.
Without proper tools to audit this, it's all added risk that you accept by trusting the vendor. Sure, many of us have accepted this risk, but it's risk all the same.
Ancillas - Thursday, May 24, 2018 - link
This just recently happened and is a great example of the risk I'm talking about.Woman says her Amazon device recorded private conversation, sent it out to random contact
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/woman-says-her-am...
Manch - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
I get that. None of my devices are actively listening though. Not even my phone. If its always on, then yes, it's a risk. If it's not properly configured, then it's a risk. As I said, "I prefer to not have any".BurntMyBacon - Tuesday, May 22, 2018 - link
@ReflexTrue. Many people have a lot of devices tuned in and don't realize it. If they find Alexa, Cortana, Et al. offensive, then they need to take a closer look at other devices they are using (I.E. Smart Phones, Smart TVs, IOT devices, Tablets, Computers). It is a task many have not undertaken, but it is by no means insurmountable. Start at your internet connections (Cable Modem, DSL, mobile carrier signals, etc.). Find all devices connected to these (Wired, WiFi, Mobile Antenna, etc.). Make note of any of these devices that have microphones (or camera's if that is your concern). Then you'll want to mute the mic, disconnect the device from the internet, or shut down the device entirely when not in use to remove any chance of being recorded without permission. If this is too much work, then you'll need to reconsider what level of risk you are willing to accept and either get rid of the offending devices or live with the knowledge that you may be recorded.
Tylanner - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
We are being overrun with convenience...at some point Amazon's extraordinary "problem solving" is going to result in our reluctant dependency...Manch - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Yup, not a fan of vendor lock in....of any kinds3cur3 - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Minor typo: "for far-filed voice recognition" => "far-field"HardwareDufus - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
Microsoft really dropped the ball with Cortana. They are a tech company being leapfrogged by an online retail outfitter.Speedfriend - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
It was Apple that really dropped the ball given they were first with Siri, but then they did the same with music streaming given their iTunes position and video given their Apple TV position.Ancillas - Monday, May 21, 2018 - link
No kidding. They have PCs in almost every home. They have a very popular gaming device that's also used as an entertainment hub. They had the music streaming service.Amazon had to build and sell the devices.
Microsoft missed a huge opportunity.
Neilsmith1 - Friday, July 27, 2018 - link
Wow! Amazing gift for the Acer users! It is very interesting to know about this news and hope it will take more benefits to the users as well as Acer company. I am very curious to use this features on Acer laptops! http://alexa-echo-help.com/EchoDevice - Saturday, November 3, 2018 - link
Oh that's really amazing news for the Acer users. users can now enjoy the excellent features of Alexa on PC. For any issue using the Alexa device users can avail complete support at https://echodevicesupport.com/echo-alexa-service/